Author Brian Jacques dies at 71

Liverpool native wrote 'Redwall' adventures for children

Brian Jacques, author of the best-selling “Redwall” adventures for children, has died. He was 71.

The Liverpool Echo newspaper said Tuesday that Jacques died Saturday in a hospital where he was being treated for an aneurism on his aorta.

Jacques was a milk delivery man when he wrote the first Redwall story for children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind in Liverpool, one of the stops on his route. The book’s hero was a timid mouse named Matthias who found the courage to protect his home, Redwall Abbey.

“I wanted to write something visual that I could read to the children,” Jacques said in an interview published on the website of publisher Random House.

“This was when I created the idea of Redwall Abbey in my imagination. As I wrote, the idea grew, and the manuscript along with it.”